[AnAmericanMother]

Very bad behavior on the part of the park employees.

1. Undergunned. 12 gauge is a great tool for aggressive humans. It ain't enough for aggressive black bears. This guy needed one of the heavy rifles, loaded alternately with partition bullets and solids. I'm partial to the Old Reliable, .375 Holland and Holland Magnum -- but most professional hunters are now carrying one of the big Winchester or Weatherby magnums.

2. When you wound game, you always follow it up. . . . unless you're a park ranger. If the bear had lost that much blood, it wouldn't have been difficult to track. I suspect that these sometime hunters were reluctant to head into heavy cover after a wounded bear. To avoid this situation, see item No. 1.

This is not the first time this has occurred, btw. Back when my dad was in his 30s, he was hunting with a Game Warden who gut shot a deer. They tracked the blood trail for awhile, but the warden got tired and left my dad to track on alone. He followed that deer for FOUR HOURS, found it dead, and packed it out.

[Little Ray]

With the right ammo, a 12 gauge is plenty gun for a bear. A 12 gauge shotgun loaded with slugs is standard issue “bear medicine” on the arctic ice cap.

[MBB1984]

A slug from a 12 gauge should be plenty enough power to stop a black bear at close range. Of course, some slugs are much better than others. The shooter should have aimed at the neck, however.

[Hacklehead]

“1. Undergunned. 12 gauge is a great tool for aggressive humans. It ain’t enough for aggressive black bears. “

By all accounts a 12 G w slugs is plenty for a black bear, and is even acceptable for Griz at close range. The failure in this case was due to poor marksmanship. A hit in the same spot from a 375 H&H would likely have the same result. Not following up on the wounded bear was unforgivable.

[proud_yank]

1. Undergunned. 12 gauge is a great tool for aggressive humans. It ain't enough for aggressive black bears. This guy needed one of the heavy rifles, loaded alternately with partition bullets and solids. I'm partial to the Old Reliable, .375 Holland and Holland Magnum -- but most professional hunters are now carrying one of the big Winchester or Weatherby magnums.

Are you serious??? A 12-ga loaded with 2 3/4 lead slugs is more than sufficient for black bear, and they're quite often hunted with a lot less. There are guides on Kodiak Island who recommend a .375H&H for brown bear there, but plenty of large brown bears and polar bears have been taken with less (.338 win mag, .300 & .340 weatherbys).

2. When you wound game, you always follow it up. . . . unless you're a park ranger. If the bear had lost that much blood, it wouldn't have been difficult to track. I suspect that these sometime hunters were reluctant to head into heavy cover after a wounded bear. To avoid this situation, see item No. 1.

This is not the first time this has occurred, btw. Back when my dad was in his 30s, he was hunting with a Game Warden who gut shot a deer. They tracked the blood trail for awhile, but the warden got tired and left my dad to track on alone. He followed that deer for FOUR HOURS, found it dead, and packed it out.

Bears are difficult to kill immediately, even with a clean heart or lung shot, and they can travel a fair distance before collapsing. The last thing you do is walk out to them if it walks off especially if you have to take a less-than-ideal shot (as this case suggests). You have to give them sufficient time, a wounded bear is extremely dangerous.

In Denali, and much of alaska, the shrubs and alders can grow extremely tall and thick. Very difficult to walk through, and visibility from the air would be as difficult as from the ground.

My guess is that a team of rangers will conduct a search for this bear, provided a grizzly hasn't gone away with it.